HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

ANCIENT TIMES
No computer or calculator
Man use fingers to add or subtract
Numbering system (decimal system)
Abacus

A very old abacus

 A more modern abacus. Note how the abacus is really just a
representation of the human fingers: the 5 lower rings on each rod
represent the 5 fingers and the 2 upper rings represent the 2 hands.
In 1642 Blaise Pascal, invented an adding machine ( Pascaline). The
principle of this machine is the same as in the counters of tape recorders.

Pascal's Pascaline [photo 2002 IEEE]

A 6 digit model for those who couldn't afford the 8 digit model
A Pascaline opened up so you can observe the gears and cylinders
which rotated to display the numerical result
 In 1674, Gottfried Wilhelm Von Liebniz improved Pascals machine.
He uses a stepped cylindrical gear to build his "Stepped Reckoner".It was
the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations: addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division

Replica of Leibniz's Stepped Reckoner in the Deutsches Museum.

In 1801 the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the mechanical
loom which uses punched cards.

Jacquard's Loom showing the threads and the punched cards

By selecting particular cards for Jacquard's loom you defined the
woven pattern [photo 2002 IEEE]
 A close-up of a Jacquard card

By 1822 the English mathematician Charles Babbage was proposing a steam driven
calculating machine the size of a room, which he called the Difference Engine. This
machine would be able to compute tables of numbers, such as logarithm tables. He
obtained government funding for this project due to the importance of numeric tables in
ocean navigation. By promoting their commercial and military navies, the British
government had managed to become the earth's greatest empire. But in that time frame
the British government was publishing a seven volume set of navigation tables which
came with a companion volume of corrections which showed that the set had over 1000
numerical errors. It was hoped that Babbage's machine could eliminate errors in these
types of tables. But construction of Babbage's Difference Engine proved exceedingly
difficult and the project soon became the most expensive government funded project up
to that point in English history. Ten years later the device was still nowhere near
complete, acrimony abounded between all involved, and funding dried up. The device
was never finished.
A small section of the type of mechanism employed in Babbage's Difference Engine [photo 2002
IEEE]

Babbage was not deterred, and by then was on to his next brainstorm, which he called
the Analytic Engine. This device, large as a house and powered by 6 steam engines,
would be more general purpose in nature because it would be programmable, thanks to
the punched card technology of Jacquard. But it was Babbage who made an important
intellectual leap regarding the punched cards. In the Jacquard loom, the presence or
absence of each hole in the card physically allows a colored thread to pass or stops that
thread (you can see this clearly in the earlier photo). Babbage saw that the pattern of
holes could be used to represent an abstract idea such as a problem statement or the
raw data required for that problem's solution. Babbage saw that there was no
requirement that the problem matter itself physically pass thru the holes.

In 1890, Herman Hollerith adapted the punch card concept of Jacquard.

He developed a code represented by holes arrangement which was called
Hollerith code.

An operator working at a Hollerith Desk

Preparation of punched cards for the U.S. census
A few Hollerith desks still exist today [photo courtesy The Computer
Museum]

In 1911, Hollerith's company merges with two other companies

to become CTR, the Calculating, Tabulating and Recording
Company. Why should we care? Because in 1924...(go on, look
ahead)

In 1924, Thomas J. Watson, President of CTR, changes its name

to International Business Machines (IBM).
Two types of computer punch cards
FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS- 1940-1956: Vacuum Tubes
Howard Aiken of Harvard University was then right to implement
Babbages concept. With the combined efforts of his colleagues in Harvard and
IBM, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator was finished in 1944. It was
called MARK I and could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division. This machine uses electromechanical devices and relays.

The Harvard Mark I: an electro-mechanical computer

 In 1946, John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly at University of
Pennsylvania started ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer) which used electronic components (primarily vacuum tubes)
and therefore was faster than MARK I.

Two views of ENIAC: the "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator" (note that it wasn't even
given the name of computer since "computers" were people) [U.S. Army photo]
Reprogramming ENIAC involved a hike [U.S. Army photo]
Vacuum tube
Vacuum tube memory
1949 EDVAC (electronic discrete variable computer) - First computer to use
Magnetic Tape. This was a breakthrough as previous computers had
to be re-programmed by re-wiring them whereas EDVAC could have
new programs loaded off of the tape. Proposed by John von
Neumann, it was completed in 1952 at the Institute for Advance
Study, Princeton, USA.

EDVAC computer
 In 1951, Remington Rand manufactured the first commercially
available first generation computer. It was named UNIVAC I (Universal
Automatic Calculator).

Inside UNIVAC I
 In 1954, IBM developed its own first generation computer called IBM
704 which could perform 100,000 calculations per second.

IBM 704 Data Processing System

SECOND GENERATION COMPUTERS - 1956-1963:
Transistors

The second generation computers emerged with development

of Transistors. The transistor was invented in 1947 by three scientists J.
Bardeen, H.W. Brattain and W. Shockley. A transistor is a small device
made up of semiconductor material like germanium and silicon.
Even though the Transistor were developed in 1947 but was not
widely used until the end of 50s. The transistor made the second
generation computers faster, smaller, cheaper, more energy-
efficient and more reliable than their first-generation computers.

The IBM 7090 Console in the Columbia Computer Center machine room, 1966.

Source:http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/7090.html
THIRD GENERATION COMPUTERS - 1964-1971:
Integrated Circuits.

The third generation computers emerged with the

development of IC (Integrated Circuits). The invention of the IC was
the greatest achievement done in the period of third generation of
computers. IC was invented by Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby in 1958-
59. IC is a single component containing a number of transistors.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called
semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and
efficiency of computers.
The IBM 360/91

Source:http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/36091.html
FOURTH GENERATION COMPUTERS - 1971-Present:
Microprocessors

With the help of VLSI(Very Large Scale Integration) technology,

microprocessor came into existence. The computers were designed
by using microprocessor, as thousands of integrated circuits were
built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an
entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The fourth
generation computers became more powerful, compact, reliable
and affordable. As a result, they give rise to personal computer (PC)
revolution.

1971 - The first mass-produced microprocessor, the Intel 4004

processor, developed by Ted Hoff, is introduced. It can
process four bits of data simultaneously at the rate 60,000
instructions per second and has its own arithmetic logic unit.

1972 - The Intel 8008 processor is introduced.

1973 - Bill Gates started studying at Harvard University in 1973 where

he spent time with Paul Allen. Gates and Allen worked on a
version of the programming language BASIC, that was the
basis for the MITS Altair (the first microcomputer available). He
did not go on to graduate from Harvard University as he left in
 his junior year to start what was to become the largest
computer software company in the world; Microsoft
Corporation.

1974 - The Intel 8080 processor is introduced - it becomes the basis

for the first personal computers.

1975 - Ed Roberts, considered the father of the personal computer,

designs the Altair 8800. It is produced by Micro Instrumentation
and Telemetry Systems (MITS).

The Altair 8800, the first PC

1976 - Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak design and build the first
Apple computers, the Apple 1, in the Jobs' family garage.

The Apple 1 which was sold as a do-it-yourself kit (without the lovely
case seen here)
1977 - The Apple II computer is introduced at a trade show.

- The TRS-80 and Commodore computers are introduced at

the same show

- Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque,

New Mexico.

1978 - Intel introduces the 8086 chip with 29,000 transistors. Shortly
after, they introduce the 8088 chip.

- The Wordstar word processing program is introduced for use

on CP/M systems. It is later modified to run on DOS systems.

1980 - IBM hires Microsoft to develop an operating system for their

proposed personal computer. Gates and company develop
MS-DOS and take the first steps on their way to obscene
riches.
1983 - The first "laptop" computer, the TRS-80 Model 100.

1984 - Sony and Phillips jointly introduce the CD-ROM.

1985 - Microsoft finally releases the Windows operating system.

1989 - Microsoft introduces Word for Windows.

1990 - Microsoft ships Windows 3.0

1991 - Windows 3.1 appears. It is the first relatively stable Windows

operating system.

1994 - IBM releases OS/2 Warp 3.0

- Microsoft releases Windows 95

Sources: http://www.warbaby.com/FG_test/Timeline.html & http://latesttechnomanias.blogspot.com
 Release
Name
date
Windows 10 29 July 2015
Windows 8.1 18 October 2014
Windows 8 26 October 2012
Windows 7 22 October 2009
Windows Vista 30 January 2007
Windows XP Professional x64 25 April 2005
Windows XP 25 October 2001
Windows ME 14 September 2000
Windows 2000 17 February 2000
Windows 98 25 June 1998
Windows NT 4.0 24 August 1996
Windows 95 24 August 1995
Windows NT 3.51 30 May 1995
Windows NT 3.5 21 September 1994
Windows 3.2 22 November 1993
Windows for Workgroups 3.11 November 1993
Windows NT 3.1 27 July 1993
Windows 3.1 April 1992
Windows 3.0 22 May 1990
Windows 2.11 13 March 1989
Windows 2.10 27 May 1988
Windows 2.0 9 December 1987
Windows 1.04 April 1987
Windows 1.03 August 1986
Windows 1.01 20 November 1985
MS-DOS August 1981

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_versions
The original IBM Personal Computer (PC)
 8-inch, 5-inch (full height), and 3-
inch drives

Date 1969 (8-inch),

invented 1976 (5-inch),
1982 (3-inch)

Invented by IBM team led by David L.

Noble
A 16 GB USB retractable flash drive
Samsung 500 GB external USB hard drive.

The readable surface of a Compact Disc includes a spiral

track wound tightly enough to cause light to diffract into a
full visible spectrum
DVD-R read/write side
Miniaturization is evident in memory card creation; over time, the physical
card sizes grow smaller while their respective logical sizes grow larger. The
memory cards listed from left to right are: Compact flash (32 MB), SD (128
MB), miniSD (1.0 GB), and microSD (2.0 GB).